1)

a) During this course, we took an Implicit Association Test to test for biases we may have but are unaware of. This test taught me a lot about myself because I confirmed biases that I was aware of; however, I also unveiled biases I did not think I had. I confirmed the bias that I have towards fit people, due to their strong mentalties. But, I also revealed my inner bias for younger people compared to older people; this was quite interesting to me because I did not think I had a particular bias toward any age group if anything I usually treat older people with more respect; however, I have now come to realize it must be a subconscious quality due to being a young person myself.

b) Something in particular that I learned in this course was using and understanding artificial intelligence. During class, we experimented with AI and we were shown the hidden biases that AI may have that aren’t always explicitly mentioned but underlying in the reply that was provided. For instance, one of the prompts we experimented on was terrorist attacks. When AI was directly asked if one group of people is particularly responsible for terrorist attacks, it immediately refused. However, when the prompt was restated to listing examples of terrorist attacks, all of those listed were of Muslim origin showcasing the pattern. This was evident due to AI learning from the internet and other people, mimicking Western ideologies and biases. Therefore, this revelation was a vital discovery for my academic life as whenever I research something using AI, I always check for hidden biases to avoid making the same mistake in my pursuit of always making my work purely based on factual information and not misleading ideologies.

c) Something that I learned that I will most definitely use in my social life is the concept behind “The Danger of a Single Story”. During class, we watched a TED talk explaining the dangers of immediately assuming and creating a story about someone before even meeting or communicating with them. I thought this was a great TED talk because after watching it, I realized I was guilty of doing it myself where I would assume many things about someone because of one quality that I saw and it makes it very hard to see them as anything else but the story you painted for them. However, I have pushed myself whenever I am socially interacting with anyone to let them share their story and always give them the benefit of the doubt because it is unfair to assume something about someone that may be wildly inaccurate.

d) In terms of applications for my career, I believe Soliya was excellent at allowing me to communicate with people I have never met before from places I have never seen before. As a result, in the workplace, I can benefit from the skills of communication that I learned during Soliya to help me discuss with other people unlike me to reach a valid conclusion; especially due to the diversity of workplaces and having to work with people from around the world.

2) If I were to show someone my learning in this course, I would use these three things that I created: AltCV, my game, and my Soliya final reflection paper. Firstly, I chose the AltCV because it was one of the first assignments we did and I believe it shows how we learned to squeeze important information about ourselves in a creative and fun manner. Secondly, I also attached my game because it showcases hours of work exemplifying thought and care; also it reveals how we learned to create a game using Google Slides. Finally, I selected the Soliya final reflection paper because it shows everything that I learned during Soliya in a neat and organized manner by highlighting the most important moments during my four sessions.

3) If I could change something about this course to improve it I would recommend making each Soliya session one hour long instead of two hours because two hours can become too much sometimes due to awkward silences; this is particularly evident because it was on Zoom, if it wasn’t on zoom then two hours would have been great due to the benefits of face to face interaction. Also, since we discussed the use cases of AI, I think we should have had an activity where we compared different AI models to find their strengths and weaknesses and further enhance our knowledge of AI.

4) A person who is trying to enhance their social interaction and communication skills; also, someone who wants to improve their understanding of AI.